The Shadow Proves The Sunshine
by Fragile-Strength
Summary: And there was the beautiful red again, all over beautiful her. skate


**UPDATED It's been edited, and generally cleaned up, with** **a couple parts added in and a couple parts taken away. I'd like to note that I actually wrote this fic before the end of the second season, and was greatly shocked by both the season three finale and Juliet being a fertility doctor and generally that the plot is beginning to revolve around pregnancy. Who knows? Maybe I have some sort of untapped psychic ability!**

---

Sunshine, won't you be my mother?

Sunshine come and help me sing,

My heart is darker than these oceans,

My heart is frozen underneath.

---

He hated her for doing this. Hated her for being like this. So damn beautiful. 

He'd never cried before, not once, and that was something he was proud of.

Not even when it happened.

Not even when he was eight and the gun went off the second time, and there was a thud above him. He crawled out from under his bed, and looked down onto the bed, head tilted to one side. That was such a pretty color, that red. Turning away, he'd crossed the room and opened the door, brow furrowing in confusion. There was that color again, all over the walls, the floor. And there was a person lying down, twisted on their side, head buried under her arms. Why didn't they get up? Why was there so much red everywhere?

---

Crooked soul trying to stay up straight,

Dry eyes in the pouring rain,

The shadow proves the sunshine,

The shadow proves the sunshine.

---

He remembered so clearly the day she'd left. She said it wouldn't work, said they would never make it. Told him she loved him, so much it hurt. But he just wouldn't try. Why wouldn't he try? Why couldn't he just try?

She had said that all he had to do was put out a little effort. Prove that he cared. Did he care? She didn't know, she just didn't know. Or so she'd said at the time.

She'd said she wouldn't go back to the group - she couldn't - she'd abandoned that life long ago and there was no going back now. Don't you remember when we said that, Tex? No going back now.

You know I'm a tough girl, Tex. You know I can take of myself. I'll be fine, I'll find my way. I'll wait for you, babe, for you to get yourself sorted out, 'cause it isn't gonna work any other way. You'll find me, I know you will. I'll be there when you come looking for me, she'd said.

All the what ifs are too risky, he'd said. Stay with me, Freckles. Give me a second chance.

She just smiled. I love you, but you used up your second chance so very long ago. Maybe you'll come and find me, once I'm gone? Maybe you'll see? Maybe we're not lost. But you've gotta prove it, because right now, I just can't believe you.

---

_Two scared little runaways,_

_Hold fast 'til the break of daylight,_

_When the shadow proves the sunshine,_

_The shadow proves the sunshine._

---

Baby, I'll come for you. I'll be there. You'll see. You're worth it, Freckles.

She'd cried then. But he didn't. He'd never cried.

And he did as he said he would. He'd sorted himself out. He saw himself, and he saw her with him. He saw her by his side, saw her as his other side. And so he went after her, but he wasn't where she should have been. Wasn't at the waterfall, wasn't where they kissed, wasn't anywhere.

---

_Oh Lord, don't be far away, away._

_Storm clouds gathering beside me,_

_Please Lord, don't looking the other way._

---

So he found himself in a difficult place. Those he'd such a long time ago considered his 'friends' back at the camp, forsaken. Could they do anything to help her? _Would_ theydo anything to help her? No. Not after what they'd done.

So he was left to himself, alone and afraid, and perpetually looking for her.

And one day, she walked past, with all the other women of the camp. Their heads were bowed, plodding along, single file. She was wearing her purple tank top and her favorite pair of jeans, the same thing she'd worn when she left him, with a white shawl over it.

Every last one of them - all of the women he'd come to know - had a white shawl on.

---

_The shadow proves the sunshine,_

_The shadow proves the sunshine,_

_Two scared little runaways,_

_Hold fast 'till the break of daylight,_

_When the shadow proves the sunshine._

_The shadows proves the sunshine._

---

She'd been captured by them, just like she'd said she wouldn't. And he was left to do what he'd said he would - to rescue her. And he did, risking life and limb. And she'd realized that he loved her. And he realized that he loved her. They'd cried then, both of them. For the first time in his life, he cried. Once safely away into the jungle, holding the only woman he'd ever loved close, hands tangled in that little white shawl, face buried in her brown locks that still smelled like the coconut shampoo she'd used that first time she took a shower in the hatch. I love you, he said.

I love you, too, Tex, she responded. Let's go home.

And they'd gone home, hand in hand, smiles identical, steps matching, breaths even. They were finally one. Two years after that fateful, bloody day, they were one.

Baby, what does the white shawl mean?

It means that I'm pregnant. They did some tests, and we're all pregnant. It's how they separate us for the others.

The others?

The Others.

They came across the rest of the camp, and he couldn't remember ever being happier in his life. I've found the rest of them, Doc! I've found the women! Freckles and I, God, Jack-o, we're so sorry. We didn't mean to hand them away, Doc! It was just an accident! It was just an accid-

But before he could stop him, the doctor had pulled the gun from the back of his pants and shot her. BANG. BANG. Just like when he was eight. And there was the beautiful red again, all over beautiful her.

He caught her in his arms, and he'd held her. Her mouth was an O of shock, and he'd bent down, and he'd kissed her, tears streaking down from his face as she kissed him back for the last time.

Hey Tex? She'd said, just as he took his lips from hers. Make a go of it.

She had the good grace to close her eyes before she died.

---

_I'm a crooked soul trying to stay up straight,_

_Shine on me,_

_Let my shadows prove the sunshine._

---

Post Script; I truly apologize for the format, but I think the story is best expressed this way, and this is the form of writing that comes naturally to me. This is based on a dream I had a bit ago, and actually not based on the song at all, and although the words don't have much to do with the story, I found it oddly fitting. This is my second fic, and my first one-shot, and RR and would be ADORED. Since I'm sure the actual fic was hard to understand, here it is in short.

It's been two years since the plane crashed, and the lost-aways are still on the island. Kate and Sawyer fell in love, and ran away, but not before accidentally handing over all the women to the Others in a circumstance that I'm not quite sure of myself. However, three months later, Eko ventures into the jungle to tell Sawyer and Kate of the news that all of the women of the camp have been stolen away by the Others, and their help in looking for them would be appreciated, but Jack does not want them back at the camp. Sawyer and Kate's relationship was stormy out in the jungle, and Kate left to live on her own after a particularly big fight. It only took Sawyer a day and a half to sort things out, but he had trouble finding Kate at all the places she'd hinted she'd be, and lost a week looking for her when he saw her with the other women in the white shawls. He'd rescued her, and she'd finally realized that all this time he had cared and had been showing it in his own way. She felt guilt for this until the day that she died which, coincidentally was only three days later, when Kate and Sawyer returned to camp and Jack shot her for what both Sawyer and Kate had done. Katharine Austin died on September 26th, 2006. James Ford took his own life two days later, on September 28th, 2006. The other women of the camp were never found.

Please, when rating and reviewing, keep in mind I'm only thirteen. Be nice!


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